‘Non-retirement workshop’ for Arthur van Soest

On Monday, June 16, the ‘non-retirement workshop’ was held in Tilburg on the occasion of Arthur van Soest reaching retirement age. Arthur has been one of the mainstays of Netspar for twenty years. The title of the workshop suggests that he will continue with research and especially teaching after his retirement.

Arthur is known as the driving force behind much micro research on topics such as pension accrual, longer working lives and livelihood security. He emphasized the importance of intensive contact with the international academic community and was a committed supervisor and co-author for many. As research coordinator, he played an important role in stimulating and coordinating Netspar research.

Arthur was and is also an excellent and passionate lecturer. For many years he was also involved administratively in the design of Netspar’s education. Arthur was additionally responsible for major improvements in the availability of datasets relevant to Netspar’s agenda, including the LISS panel.

Participating in the June 16 workshop were many of the many doctoral students Arthur has mentored. These came from China and Australia to Canada and the United States to Tilburg to attend the workshop. The participants mentioned Arthur’s many achievements, but above all they talked about current research and invited Arthur to continue contributing to it.